Ask CPA Trendlines
Now, with smarter search, deeper analysis and more detailed responses (v.2.8).
Today's Features
Listen, Download, Stream, Subscribe Anywhere
Click here to load your Apple podcast app
Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/Youtube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
Emerging Trends Are Reshaping Advisory-CAS
Don’t just buy technology; strategically activate it.
By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide
Advisory is changing rapidly and it is not just in what firms offer, but in how clients think, how technology fits in and how pricing evolves. This article examines the emerging shifts redefining the Advisory-CAS world, from burnout and outdated service models to the increasing demand for proactive, strategic insight. You will see what’s fading and what’s rising, and where to focus to stay ahead.
MORE by Hitendra Patil
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
Most surveys focus on direct responses, but the real value comes from analyzing what those responses reveal, especially in context. The nuances, patterns and implications hidden within the answers often provide the most strategic insights, particularly when you connect the dots across service lines, firm models, client dynamics and workforce pressure points.
READ MORE →
Kenji Kuramoto: AI Agents Are Coming for SALY — and the Billable Hour | The Disruptors
Intelligent agents will reshape accounting workflows, pricing models, employee development, and the value firms deliver to clients.
Sponsored by Radical Pricing: Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, and Build a Top-Value Firm
Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines
Kenji Kuramoto says accounting firms will be changing how they work — and even who does the work.
“The future of accounting firms,” Kuramoto says, “is going to be made up of a workforce that has two components. It’ll have people and agents.”
His current company, Basis, where he serves as managing partner in residence, is building those agents. Kuramoto says approximately 30% of the top 25 accounting firms are using them across client accounting services, tax, and audit. The agents perform multistep workflows such as reconciliations, account categorization, and first-pass tax return preparation, including work on complex partnership returns.
MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming Network
By the end of the year, Kuramoto expects some practice lines to achieve efficiency gains of 60% to 80% by using agents. Within a year, “we should probably be able to see agents working and collaborating together, overall, being directed and architected by people,” he says.
Three Tools to Keep Your Strategy on Track
Accountability is key.
By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great
In my experience, making sure that your economic model becomes reality only happens with persistent and consistent accountability.
MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
To achieve accountability, I recommend three management tools that will help you create focus and improve performance:
Jason Ackerman: Roth Mistakes That Can Cost Clients | The Concierge CPA
The strategy may be simple, but the execution is not.
The Balanced Millionaire: Building a 7-Figure Firm in 4 Hours a Week. – See Today’s Special Offer
Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
The Concierge CPA
With Jackie Meyer
MORE Jackie Meyer | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network
Roth IRAs can provide tax-free growth and qualified withdrawals, but eligibility rules, reporting requirements, and conversion mechanics leave plenty of room for costly mistakes. Meyer and Ackerman examine direct contributions, backdoor Roth strategies, the often-misunderstood five-year rules, and the documentation advisers need to implement these strategies correctly.
A central warning: A backdoor Roth is not a product or a one-click transaction. It is a multistep process that requires advisers to examine the client’s existing IRA balances, properly report nondeductible contributions and conversions, and reconcile Form 8606 with Form 1099-R.
“Messing up the backdoor Roth is probably the one that can hurt the most,” Ackerman says.
Help Clients Envision Their Future Selves
Ask the “best hopes” question.
By Rory Henry
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
When helping clients plan for retirement, exit their businesses or reach other major financial goals, we tend to default to the numbers. Financial projections, spending needs, drawdown rates and risk tolerance are great navigational aids, but as Lewis Carroll wrote in “Alice in Wonderland,” “If you don’t know where you’re going any road will take you there.” However, a new approach is showing that getting in tune with our future selves is one of the best ways for clients and their advisors to plan for retirement.
MORE: How to Use Values-Based Financial Planning | Life Planning: Going Beyond the Financials | Understand Clients’ Relationship with Money | From Services to Experiences to Transformations | How Behavioral Finance Works | Priority No. 1: Your Mental and Physical Health | Trust Is the Primary Ingredient | How to Prepare Your Clients’ Kids for Their Inheritance | Quantifying the Value of an Advisor | Raise Your Rates to Change Your Clientele | How WealthTech Is Reshaping the Future of Holistic Advice | Profile of a Modern Firm: Putting the Vision into Practice | Tsunami of M&A, PE Is Disrupting the Accounting Profession | Introducing You to a Fulfilling Return on Relationships
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
As a result, we must continually adjust our goals, including retirement planning, and that comes by getting well acquainted with our “future selves,” according to UCLA Professor Hal Hershfield. He said that while it’s important for you to consider the goals for yourself when it comes to money and saving, it’s just as important to think carefully about the goals you have for your future self long after you have stopped earning an income.
READ MORE →